Over 490,000 legal aid services for Victorians

This past year, we were proud to deliver over 490,000 services to people across Victoria.

These included legal representation, advice and information, family dispute resolution, early engagement and intervention, non-legal advocacy and support, and community legal education.

Our work helps people facing complex circumstances in their lives navigate the law and understand their rights and responsibilities. By getting involved early, we help prevent legal problems from escalating, easing pressure on justice and government systems.

‘It is through these strong partnerships that we create meaningful change – and the initiatives featured in this report are a testament to what we can achieve together.

‘We are also grateful to the state and federal governments and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner for the important funding they provide.

‘While this support has allowed us to expand some services, we know there is still large unmet demand for legal assistance. We continue to call for increased funding to meet this need.’

We are carefully using our limited cash reserves to defer the need to reduce services in the short term. We know that any service reductions will negatively affect our clients, the justice system and the community.

Our clients

Our annual client survey showed that clients were positive overall about our services and interactions with our staff, with 79 per cent saying they would recommend us to others.

Eighty-three per cent said their lawyer treated them with respect. Seventy-nine per cent of those whose legal problem was resolved said our help had a positive impact on the outcome.

Our clients include a diverse range of people across Victoria. Many face complex legal problems and experience cultural barriers, discrimination, disability, mental health issues or social and geographic isolation. For many clients, these issues or experiences intersect and can compound.

Of our clients in 2024–25:

• one in four were living in regional Victoria, where we know that legal assistance services can be difficult to access
• one in four had no income, while nine per cent were at risk of homelessness, showing the impact of cost-of-living pressures in driving legal need
• nine per cent identified as First Nations people, compared to one per cent of Victoria’s population, highlighting significant over-representation in the justice system
• 14 per cent were from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and six per cent needed an interpreter, showing the need for culturally safe and responsive services
• 36 per cent disclosed having a disability or mental health issue, highlighting the importance of accessibility in our service delivery.

Our report includes the powerful stories of some of our clients – such as Kai, a young trans girl who found stability after facing eviction into homelessness, and Serena, a First Nations woman who challenged an unfair system to protect her children.

Improving access to justice

We were proud to implement new and expanded services with our partners during the year, helping to strengthen access to justice for Victorians.

These included:

• developing a new legal helpline for First Nations people, providing access to legal assistance in a culturally safe and responsive way
• establishing new services in the Ovens Murray region, enabling more people in the region to access legal assistance
• providing more legal help in permanent protection visa appeals, achieving positive outcomes in 90 per cent of cases and helping ease backlogs in the immigration system
• continuing to expand Independent Family Advocacy and Support across Victoria, meaning more families involved with Child Protection can access free support
• piloting a non-legal support service for people on remand, assisting with needs such as family contact, medical access advocacy and navigating court processes.

We also continued to advocate for fairer laws and systems, in line with our advocacy priorities.

This included sharing our practice experience and client stories to highlight the impacts of the government’s changes to bail laws, the intervention order system’s effects on children, and people’s experiences with compulsory mental health treatment.

Read the report